The pursuit of sustainability can be complex, challenging, and ultimately beneficial when practiced by corporate, academic, government and non-profit organizations. The Sustainability Handbook provides a blueprint on how organizations of all sizes can reach or exceed economic, social and environmental excellence. The handbook offers a wide variety of practical approaches and tools, including a model sustainability policy for organizations, summaries and tips on selecting sustainability codes, an extensive collection of sample metrics, and much more.
William R. Blackburn is president of William Blackburn Consulting, Ltd., focusing on sustainability; environment, health and safety management; and emergency and crisis response. The firm is a social enterprise with all revenues beyond taxes and other expenses going to The Green Hollow Center, a nature preserve and sustainability learning center in the Loess Hills of Southwest Iowa.
Bill is a frequent lecturer around the world. He has over 35 years experience in environmental law and management. Until 2003 he was vice president and chief counsel, Corporate Environment, Health and Safety at Baxter International Inc., a $10 billion global manufacturer of health-care products based in Deerfield, Illinois. At Baxter, he led efforts in pioneering innovative environmental management standards; EHS performance measures; public reporting on corporate EHS and sustainability; environmental cost and income statements; and emergency response programs. Under his leadership, the Baxter EHS program received over 300 external awards. The company is in the Down Jones Sustainability Index and has regularly been recognized at the Davos World Economic Forum as among the top 100 most sustainable large companies in the world. Bill's book, The Sustainability Handbook--The Complete Management Guide to Achieving Social, Economic, and Environmental Responsibility, was published by the Environmental Law Institute and Earthscan in 2007, and is used for course work at Harvard and other universities. It is also available in Mandarin Chinese.
Before joining Baxter in 1978, Bill served five years as general counsel for Clinton Bogert Associates, an environmental engineering firm in New Jersey. Bill holds a JD in law from the University of Iowa and BS in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University. He was admitted to the practice of law in Illinois, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia, and received his professional engineer's license in New Jersey. Bill is former chair of Chief EHS Officers Council I of The Conference Board, a business association, and the former senior research fellow at the organization's Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability. From 2007-09, he was co-chair of the Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Ecosystems Committee of the American Bar Association, which was selected the top-rated committee among 40 in its section. At the ABA, he led the development of a model sustainability policy and implementation guide for law firms. In addition, Bill is a founding member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a coalition of non-profits, investors, academics, companies, and others promoting public reporting by organizations on sustainability performance. He served as a GRI delegate to the working group on the ISO 26000 Social Responsibility standard. He is also a judge for the sustainability reporting awards presented annually by the CERES organization and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Bill Blackburn
William Blackburn Consulting, Ltd.
1647 Bernay Lane
Long Grove, IL 60047
Phone: 847.530.4014
Fax: 847.541.4577
E-mail: WRB@WBlackburnConsulting.com
Web: www.WBlackburnConsulting.com
